Man charged after boy drinks lethal amount of whiskey

Young teen had blood alcohol level of 0.37

By TRACY JOHNSON, P-I REPORTER

Published
10:00 pm PDT, Wednesday, August 23, 2006

A man accused of buying liquor for a 13-year-old boy and doing little to stop him from gulping a lethal amount of it may now be the first person in King County to be held criminally responsible for such a death.

Kenneth Elkins died just after midnight April 16 after drinking Crown Royal whiskey with Wayne and other adults at an abandoned baseball field on the Muckleshoot reservation near Auburn, prosecutors say.

The boy's father, Robert Elkins, said Wednesday that he thinks such a charge is justified for Wayne and "anybody who does that, and this happens to a child."

"I kind of blame myself, too, you know," he said. "I wasn't there."

A warrant was issued for Wayne's arrest. If convicted, the 40-year-old man, who is known by the name "Layback," could face roughly four years in prison.

On April 15, Kenneth Elkins was with Wayne and three other adults, including two of Wayne's grown children, when they decided to get drunk, according to court documents.

Investigators say they headed to a tribal liquor store on Auburn Way South, where everyone chipped in some cash and Wayne bought a bottle of Crown Royal, a bottle of Jägermeister and cigarettes.

The group then went to the baseball field. Two of the adults later told investigators that Kenneth was drinking the Crown Royal in large gulps, sometimes chasing it with sips of a punch-flavored soft drink.

Wayne's daughter said Wayne saw Kenneth drinking too much, too fast, and told him to "slow down" but made no effort to stop him, according to court papers.

Kenneth passed out in the car on the way back to his aunt's house, and others had to carry him inside. Worried and angry, his 16-year-old sister eventually made everyone leave and called her dad.

Robert Elkins found his son passed out on the couch, took off some of the boy's clothes and carried him to bed. He wishes he'd realized that his son was in such bad shape that he could not survive the night.

"I didn't know how much he drank," he said. "If I did, I would have called an ambulance."

Kenneth's sister checked on him periodically and, as she tried to roll him over later, discovered that his lips were blue. She called 911, but medics were unable to revive him.

The boy's blood-alcohol level was 0.37 percent -- nearly five times the adult legal limit to drive a car.

His family is still trying to cope with his death. Robert Elkins has gotten a few of his six children into grief counseling and has arranged for alcohol and drug counseling for one of them -- along with himself.

King County prosecutors say they can't recall any other case in which they've charged someone for buying the liquor that caused someone's death.

"By providing alcohol to a 13-year-old, he acted with criminal negligence," said prosecutor's spokesman Dan Donohoe.

Sheriff's spokesman John Urquhart said teenagers die of alcohol poisoning too frequently across the country, but "being able to find out who provided the alcohol is difficult. From that standpoint, the charge is unusual."

Investigators from the Sheriff's Office, which provides contract police services on the Muckleshoot reservation, identified Wayne with the help of video-surveillance footage from the liquor store, according to court papers.

Wayne has prior convictions for robbery, attempting to elude police and a drug charge. Prosecutors say he has also been arrested three times for drunken driving.